HDC assesses all complaints carefully by gathering relevant information to determine the appropriate outcome. HDC processes are impartial, and we work hard to resolve complaints in a fair, timely, and effective way.
By looking into complaints, HDC helps people to understand and learn from what happened. This helps to stop the same thing happening to someone else. We use what we see in complaints to recommend improvements to health and disability care. This helps to protect people’s rights and improve services.
When the Commissioner has reached a decision about a complaint, you will receive an email or letter explaining the decision and any actions the Commissioner has taken as a result.
The Commissioner may do one (or more) of the following:
- Ask you to apologise
- Recommend that you make changes so that what happened to the person involved won’t happen again. HDC follows up with providers to make sure they carry out these changes
- Send the complaint to an advocate to help the person involved sort it out with you. The advocate will let HDC know what happens
- Send the complaint to you to sort out with the complainant. You will need to let HDC know what happens
- Send the complaint to another organisation that is better placed to look into the concerns, such as:
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- the Ministry of Health
- a registration authority (eg, the Medical Council)
- the Privacy Commissioner
- a mental health District Inspector
- Suggest other organisations that could help the complainant, eg, the Disputes Tribunal to recover money owed
- Suggest a hui a-whānau, a tikanga-led approach to complaints resolution
- Carry out a Commissioner-initiated investigation
- Carry out a formal investigation of your complaint
Very rarely, following a formal investigation and a finding of a breach of the person’s rights, a provider or organisation is referred to the Director of Proceedings, who will consider whether to take legal action.
The Commissioner may decide that the complaint does not need further action. This may happen if:
- You have already addressed the issues raised in the complaint
- The events occurred a long time ago or the evidence needed to make a decision is no longer available
- Another organisation is better placed to help the person involved with the issues raised in the complaint
- An independent advisor who works in the same field as you reports to HDC that the care received was appropriate.
Please note that HDC can’t:
- Make people pay the person involved any money
- Have a person ‘struck off’
- Change what is written in the medical notes
- Provide a second opinion on the diagnosis
- Get a person an appointment, referral, specific treatment, or a requested service.